Chill
by Dark-Lady-Devinity
Summary: Winter is coming to Chicago, Fraser noticed. Short, cute story. Slash if you care to twist it that way but not meant to be. Vecchio's in this one.


**Chill**

_Dark Lady Devinity_

A faint chill had settled down for a stay during the night. It wasn't pleasant when you were the type of person who enjoyed the sun and heat of summer. Yet if the chill was like a memory of snow covered mountain ranges, ice skating and Christmas with your librarian/boxer grandmother, then it brought you home.

Benton Fraser was the kind of person that had such memories awoken by the chill air. And that morning, when he opened the window of his dull Chicago apartment and let in the chill, he smiled. Winter was coming. It would be a good day- despite the loud complaining of his partner that was sure to occur. Ray Vecchio was the type of person to curl up in the heat in pure contentment, like a freakishly large nosed cat.

Letting the chill tip toe about the small room, Fraser began his day. The customary red uniform was put on after a small breakfast of toast and coffee. Diefenbaker glared, as much as a dog can glare, at the Mountie. He had yet to be fed. It had something to do with a diet Fraser tried to put him on. Diefenbaker did not believe in such foolish human notions as diets. Therefore, Fraser had to feed him a hearty meal before partly closing the window and heading out the door.

Ray was waiting, rather impatiently, in the signature Buick he always drove. Strangely enough, the American cop always managed to find that same greenish coloured car even after its predecessors had been blown up or lost in some other way that would be blamed on Fraser. Nearly everything that went wrong in Ray's life was blamed on Fraser. If it rained it was Fraser's fault. Though Ray only claimed that when Fraser appeared to be enjoying the rain too much for any normal person.

It was strange how their relationship worked. It was more than just friendship. Maybe too many near death experiences had brought them to rely on each other in a more primitive way than friendship and partnership had. Some would claim it was love. The bolder would say it was romantic, despite Fraser's confused naivety and Ray's "Should I shoot you now?" expression. The answer was likely in the tentative ones' answers. Of course it was love, they might say in soft scared voices, but more like a deeper sort of friendship- companionship, brotherhood. Did it matter though? Did it truly matter what made the relationship work? There was harmony in Fraser's polite words and Ray's brash ways.

_**XXX**_

The chill was uncomfortable now, Fraser could admit, when he looked over at Ray's huddled, soaked form. The day had started well enough until the duet had been placed on an investigation of political scandal… This of course ended with one of Fraser's famous leaps on top of a moving vehicle and the solving of the case. Not before the criminal pushed Ray into Lake Michigan however.

The cop sneezed and cuddled down deeper into the blanket that an ambulance worker had supplied. She had been a pretty little thing and had added insult to Ray's injury by ignoring him in favour of Fraser. It had been a difficult journey to get that one blanket. Ray was in no mood to be rejected by the girl again by trying for a second one.

"I hate winter." He murmured with a silent, yet violent, contempt.

"Now Ray, it's only your attitude towards the season that makes it such a horrible thing." Fraser commented, having walked over to the man in time to hear his mutterings. "I, personally, enjoy the winter. It reminds me of reading about making snowmen at my grandmother's."

"I hope you're kidding but I know you're not." Ray deadpanned. It was the normal banter the two shared.

It seemed then that the chill intensified. The pretty little ambulance worker seemed to notice and must have thought Fraser looked a little cold. She gathered up a blanket and started the trek to the duo. Ray bristled. How could Fraser possibly look cold when the man used to live in the _Yukon_ of all places? Especially as he wasn't the one tossed into the bloody lake?

A sudden vindictive thought entered the cop's head then and, both to combat the wavering chill and to get back at the legion of Fraser fans, he moved forward and _cuddled_ into his partner's side. The ambulance worker stopped in her tracks and blushed in embarrassment and indignation, thinking that the two were a couple.

"Ray?"

"Shut up. I'm cold and it's your fault."

"Ah."

**End**


End file.
